Main St.

[Editor]

Become enlightened about lamp parts at Moss Lighting
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
BY BILL ERVOLINO
The Record
STAFF WRITER

Retailer specializing in hard-to-find lamp components and other vintage electrical supplies.
Bill Ervolino explores the little known, unusual and sometimes weird things in North Jersey.

271 Main St., Hackensack; 201 487-5086, mosslighting.com.


Alan Rosinsky works the Moss Lighting shelves. Left, an antique bronze lamp.
STAFF PHOTOS BY DON SMITH

As Ira Moss leads me through the back room of his lighting store and down a gloomy and rather ancient-looking staircase, I start to pick up a distinctly Harry Potter-ish vibe.

Perhaps it's that cobweb over there, the glints of light bouncing off the stacks of old brass tubes or those strange-looking crystal globes in the corner.

"Watch your head," Moss says, once we're in the cellar. Through the shadows, I see hundreds — no, thousands — of boxes, neatly stacked and impeccably organized. Some are opened, others are still sealed.

Their contents, including items Moss may sell for just a couple of dollars, are almost priceless to the people who need them: spare parts for lamps, chandeliers and assorted other light fixtures going back more than a century.

As Moss would be the first to admit, his shop, Moss Lighting on Hackensack's Main Street, isn't the prettiest store on the block. Or, the biggest. Or, even — ironically enough — the most brightly lit.

But North Jerseyans, Manhattanites and plenty of overseas clients routinely seek out this seemingly one-of-a-kind shop for supplies that are hard (and sometimes impossible) to find anywhere else.

Moss, who lives in Oradell, is also a favorite of movie production companies, since period films call for period sets and props — including authentic light fixtures that won't arouse the fury of moviegoers who pay close attention to such things.



Moss Lighting also carries period wall outlets, vintage doorbell buttons and at least one lavish curiosity stored off the premises: an enormous art deco ceiling fixture that once hung in Radio City Music Hall.

Another conversation piece, on display in the store, is a six-armed ceiling fixture that goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. "Three of the arms are for electricity and three are for gas," Moss explains. "When the electricity went out, as it often did in those days, they would use it as a gas fixture."

As Moss proudly notes, the store, which was opened by his parents, Murray and Rose Mossack in 1952, is often the final destination for people who have looked everywhere else for a certain switch, plate or base made by companies that went out of business before the now-66-year-old Ira Moss was born.

(Although the Mossacks opened their doors during the Eisenhower era, they accumulated vintage fixtures, parts and wiring through auction houses and liquidation sales.)

The Mossacks' store, originally located in the Bronx, moved to Hackensack in the early 1970s. Ira Moss and his wife, Vera, took over the business in 1982. But, since her retirement, he now works alongside nephew Alan Rosinsky, 50, and another employee, 40-year-old Alex Delgado.

The store does a fair amount of walk-in business but has a high volume of referrals (mostly from other lighting stores in the area) and, more recently, a lot of online inquiries, which Rosinsky handles. And many of these clients are, in a word, desperate.

As Moss recalls, "I had a man come in once, looking for a certain part. He had been looking for two years, and he said, 'I know you're not going to have this, but ...' And I said, 'Oh, I have that,' and handed it to him in two minutes."

Even Moss isn't sure how he remembers where all of these parts and pieces are, but he says that he and Delgado can almost always find things very quickly.

And when they can't?

Moss groans. "It drives you crazy, but that's part of any business."

Upstairs and down, the shop takes up approximately 6,000 square feet. (Moss also keeps an additional 10,000 square feet of warehouse space in South Hackensack.) And beyond the usual array of parts and wiring, the floor-to-ceiling inventory includes odd-looking bolts and screws; finials in every conceivable style and shape; steel globe holders; brass back plates; four-inch harps; porcelain sockets; gold filigree lamp bases from the '30s and '40s … the list is endless.

"From the beginning," Moss says, "my parents were always looking out for these things. They always said, 'Someone is going to need them, eventually.' "

Occasionally, Rosinsky says, clients get emotional. "They don't just say, 'You have my part!' They say, 'You saved my lamp!'

Moss even sells parts for 19th-century gas lamps, which may make him the only electrical supply store in the area that stocks items which pre-date electrical supplies.

"Everyone winds up here, eventually," Rosinsky adds, before resurrecting a retail slogan that's older than he is: "If we don't have it, you don't need it."

After a moment, though, Rosinsky recants, remembering the customer who — like me — came into the store and began having a Harry Potter flashback.

"He walked in," Rosinsky recalls, and said to us, 'This looks like Diagon Alley in the Potter movies! Can you buy wands here?'

It was one of the few times Moss has ever said, "No, we don't carry them."

E-mail: ervolino@northjersey.com

[Editor]

I eat here once a week.  Great food.

Customers always return to Hackensack's Kebab House
Friday, March 25, 2011
BY CHARLES ERICKSON
Hackensack Chronicle
CORRESPONDENT

HACKENSACK — When cold weather and January snows were keeping people off Main Street and away from Kebab House, Galina Benimovich took a red grease pen and wrote "Free Sample" on one of the front windows of the Turkish restaurant.


PHOTOS BY CHARLES ERICKSON
The chicken Adana kebab is made using ground poultry that is flavored with bell peppers and spiced with paprika. The meal is served with rice, salad and Turkish bread. There are now frequent requests for freebies, including from a man who admitted he was ignorant about Turkish cuisine, which favors marinated and spiced meats that are cooked over a grill.

"So, we gave him a little plate with everything there," said Benimovich, the wife of the owner, Fred Benimovich. "He tried it, and the next day he came here with the family."

Kebab House opened in November at 137 Main St. in a storefront previously occupied by a mortgage company. The owner signed a five-year lease, and the principals understand that epicurean reputations must be cultivated.

"Each and every business needs time," Galina Benimovich said. "You cannot think that you’ll open the restaurant today and tomorrow the line is going to be around the block."


Fred and Galina Benimovich, immigrants from Ukraine, opened their Turkish restaurant, Kebab House, last year in Hackensack. Fred and Galina Benimovich arrived in the United States in 1988 from Ukraine, which was then a Soviet republic. Their cook, Sedat Kazan, arrived here in 1999 from Turkey.

The Benimoviches’ son, Sergeo, also works at Kebab House. He met Kazan when the two of them were employed at a Turkish restaurant in Brooklyn. The men discussed the possibility of opening an eatery in Bergen County.

"There are more than 50 Turkish restaurants in New York City," Kazan said. "Everybody knows the food. But this location, sometimes the people ask ‘What is a gyro?’ They don’t know."

Galina Benimovich said the staff had not received one complaint about the food since the opening.

Fred Benimovich also owns Benim Mechanical, a Fair Lawn contracting firm that specializes in commercial heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration systems. Fred and Sergeo installed the kitchen and ventilation fixtures at Kebab House, and will work at the restaurant until the spring, when trade increases at Benim Mechanical.

The family business is subsidizing the family restaurant, but the Benimoviches hope that Kebab House begins paying its own way this summer.

Kazan credits different spices and marinades for giving Turkish food its taste and texture. Cumin, black pepper, paprika, oregano, garlic and onion are the most popular spices used in the kitchen at 137 Main Street. There is no freezer on the premises.

"It’s fresh daily," Kazan said. "I make it every day. I never use any frozen meat, any frozen vegetables. Nothing."

There are some Turkish people in Bergen County, including a population in Teaneck. Turkish drivers park their limousines outside Kebab House while they patronize the establishment. But Fred Benimovich is not counting on trade from Turkish nationals to carry the business.

"People like the food," said Galina Benimovich. "This is halal food. In this area, there are a lot of Muslim people. And this is the only thing they eat, so everybody else eats halal food too because it’s a clean, good food."

Lunch and dinner are served here and lunchtime trade contributes the most to revenues, according to Galina Benimovich. There is much competition in the area, and the prices of meals reflect the concentration of restaurants.

"Not a lot of people want to spend more than 10 dollars for lunch," said Galina Benimovich. She is proud of the amount of food they serve to customers. "Here they can get a kebab, over rice, plus salad, plus soup, plus Turkish bread and sauces."

In the spring, when temperatures get warmer and the amount of daylight becomes longer, the Benimoviches believe that more people will visit their restaurant for dinner.

Twenty people can be seated inside Kebab House, which is primarily a takeout establishment. More tables can be added. The owner said that he planned to seek municipal permission to put tables and chairs on the sidewalk during the summer.

At lunch, when patrons are typically on a break from their jobs and the majority of food is ordered to go, there often is no time for customer testimonials. The $8 chicken Adana kebab and the $7.50 lamb shish kebab wrap are not major purchases. The brown-top pudding dessert sells for $3.95. But the Benimoviches and Kazan are satisfied whenever they see a person standing again at the front counter.

"With restaurants, if you don’t like it, you will never come back," Galina Benimovich said. "But here, people are coming back."

[Editor]

Copycat experiences renaissance in Hackensack
Friday, April 8, 2011
BY CHARLES ERICKSON
Hackensack Chronicle
CORRESPONDENT

HACKENSACK — Bruce Azumbrado has conducted the business of duplication for many years over the front counter at Renaissance Copy, which he owns and runs from a storefront at 57 Main St.


PHOTO BY CHARLES ERICKSON

Bruce Azumbrado opened Renaissance Copy in Hackensack in 2004 after his longtime Manhattan employer closed his copying store. Azumbrado, who lives in Teaneck, decided to try the copy business on his own, in Bergen County.

From August 2004 to 2009, this business and that counter were located in an office building at 90 Main St. Previously, the fixture was the property of Copyquick Incorporated, which operated in Manhattan and was Azumbrado’s employer for more than 35 years before the proprietor lost his lease and ended the business.

"When he closed up, he gave it to me. He was a real nice person," Azumbrado said of the man, now deceased. "One of my regrets is that he never did come over and see the place."

Near the front entrance of Renaissance Copy are some oversized chessboards. Azumbrado hosts matches here on Sundays a few times a month and wonders about a chess happy hour on workdays, with reduced prices for copies and supplies.

"I want people to play chess daily in the afternoon," he said, "but I haven’t really promoted it enough yet."

Few new customers have been gained since Renaissance Copy changed addresses on Main Street. Azumbrado purchased black-on-yellow signage to advertise the store’s services and phone number to passersby. He never tried to capture street and sidewalk trade when he operated from the office building.

"I think I was better off inside the building where I was," Azumbrado said on a Saturday afternoon while leaning on the front counter.

He began working with photocopiers in 1974. Machines then were simpler. They lacked feeders, and documents had to be placed atop the glass manually, one at a time.

"Prices, believe it or not, are a basically the same as they were back in ’74," Azumbrado said. "They haven’t really changed in the retail market, although my expenses have gone up."

There are six photocopiers inside Renaissance Copy – two color units and four monochrome machines – and Azumbrado owns four and leases the others.

He is the only employee. Deliveries are made in the morning, before the store opens.

Three of his largest customers are institutions of higher learning in New York City: Columbia University Teachers College, Manhattan College and the College of Mount Saint Vincent.

"They have a lot of junky stuff that they don’t want the secretaries to do, so they send it to me," he said, showing a mailer he did for Columbia. Finished on heavy stock by one of the color machines, the quality of the oversized postcard made it look like it had been produced by a printing house on a modern press.

Law firms in Hackensack provide Azumbrado with the most work, he said, including orders for blueprints. He rents his blueprint machine by the month and loses money every time he uses it.

"It really doesn’t pay for me to have that machine," he said, "but when a customer calls for a job, I don’t want to say go someplace else for the blueprint, so I eat a little bit on the blueprint."

Predictions about offices becoming paperless have been incorrect, but miniscule profit margins remain a challenge in the duplication industry.

"Copy shops are dying out, because I think you need something else besides copies to really make it," Azumbrado said. "Something else to bring people in."

He leases 2,000 square feet of space, and not all of it is occupied. He has some ideas about what to display at the front of the store, where the giant chessboards are positioned and extra merchandise could easily be accommodated.

Azumbrado considered buying computers and then charging customers to use them, but was dissuaded by the cost of the initial investment. Stationery supplies are another possibility, but fancy papers are available in many stores, and Azumbrado worries that stocking them would be financially unrewarding.

"I’m not sure what else would be a good complement to my business," he said. "You can’t make money selling two or three copes – not at 10 cents a copy, and I go down to as low as three cents a copy."

The owner of Renaissance Copy understands said that he is not likely to become affluent through purveying photocopies. But after another 75-hour workweek that adds thousands more to the estimated 100 million copies he’s made since 1974, Bruce Azumbrado is usually able to declare that he still enjoys his occupation.

"My wife says I should get a real job one of these days," he said. "But I’ve been working pretty much on my own for 35 years. Even when I worked for a guy, he never came to the office. I like being my own employer, my own boss."

[Oratam_Weaping]

May 3, 1998
If You're Thinking of Living In/Hackensack, N.J.; After Long Decline, Downtown Rebounds
By JERRY CHESLOW

THERE is a saying in Hackensack that as goes Main Street, so goes the rest of the city.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let be documented so that we can all look back and remember when Hackensack was better than Camden or Paterson: I don't know what William DiLunardi would have said about Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (CSP-NJ) moving to One Essex Street which is also 1 Main Street. But my guess is that he would not be pleased. How politically correct does one have to be to be blinded to the fact that it was not the County of Bergen bringing Paroled Prisoners, Potentially Dangerous Mental patients from other counties to Hackensack: CSP-NJ; helps them find rooms in Hackensack; refers them to the Homeless Shelter, and other City and County facilities. That would be a good think if it was in an industrialized area, but not even in Hackensack, and Not on Main Street.  People are uncomfortable with it. I have been talking to County employees, lawyers, and people up and down the street since July 14th and only got one positive response and that was from a public defender who (by the way) sees many of CSP-NJ clients.

[Editor]

No one injured when facade fell from Hackensack office building
Thursday, September 1, 2011
BY LIANNA ALBRIZIO
STAFF WRITER
Hackensack Chronicle

HACKENSACK - Fifteen firefighters arrived to 131 Main St. after the top portion of the front façade of the two-story office building collapsed at 12:45 p.m. today.


TARIQ ZEHAWI/THE RECORD
A portion of a building's façade fell on Thursday.


TARIQ ZEHAWI/THE RECORD
Officials have yet to determine the cause of the collapse, but Hackensack Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Wagner said it could have been because of deteriorated wood.

Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Wagner said the building was occupied at the time of the collapse, but no injuries were reported.

"Oddly, it was lunch time," he said. "It fell right on to the sidewalk, only on the exterior of the building."

While Wagner believes the collapse IS attributed to deteriorated wood, the cause is still being investigated.

Main Street is currently shut down for the safety of traffic flow and pedestrians, he said.

An emergency contractor is on the scene removing the remaining hazard. Wagner said the damage is reparable.

A construction engineer examined the building and will report back to the building department regarding reconstruction.

E-mail: albrizio@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6700
______________________________
My picture below.  There is a classic facade underneath.  I'm curious what the rest of it looks like.

[just watching]

No doubt that 10" of rain a few days ago had something to do with it.  Lots of water soaking in, making it heavier, making it more rotten

[Editor]

Hackensack attorney Frank Lucianna receives group’s lifetime award
Last updated: Friday October 14, 2011, 1:34 AM
BY MARK J. BONAMO
MANAGING EDITOR
Hackensack Chronicle

Frank Lucianna has been practicing law for almost 61 years. But according to the longtime criminal defense lawyer, he is always a bit surprised whenever he is honored because of the unique nature of his business.


Attorney Frank Lucianna was given a lifetime achievement award by the Bergen County Bar Foundation for his work as an attorney.

When interviewed in his Hackensack office, Lucianna, 88, said, "I never knew a criminal lawyer who got an award from the state for being the professional lawyer of the year or from the county for lifetime achievement," referring to past accolades. "It's the idea that we're operating on the outskirts of the law, which isn't true."

The Bergen County Bar Foundation became the latest organization to recognize Lucianna as one of New Jersey's most respected legal insiders on Sept. 19, when it gave him its Lawyer Achievement Award, a public recognition of his lifetime's work.

"I really treasure this award, because this came genuinely from people who know me and know this office," Lucianna said, who has received 14 different awards for his work over the years from various organizations, including the Urban League, the Bergen County Bar Association and Fordham University Law School, his alma mater. "It means a lot to me, and I'm very thankful for it."

Frank Carbonetti, a partner with Lucianna's firm who has been by his mentor's side for 12 years, spoke at the award ceremony in Mahwah about what knowing and working with Lucianna has meant to him and others.

"When you honor someone for a lawyer achievement award, it's a very vague award. How does one define achievement?" Carbonetti said. "You could go into all of the amazing cases that he's had and still has. His battles that he's had with judges and prosecutors have become part of Bergen County's legal lore. What I think Frank Lucianna has done is written the survival guide for lawyers on how to make it is this business."

For Carbonetti, Lucianna's greatest lesson can be crystallized in one word.

"Happiness is the key word," Carbonetti said. "It's a hard word to find when you talk about lawyers. While working like a maniac for 60 years, he's been able to stay married to same woman, Dolores, for 56 years. They raised three successful children. He hasn't been indicted. He hasn't been disbarred. He hasn't been suspended."

Carbonetti also noted other physical and spiritual factors that helped Lucianna avoid potential personal and ethical pitfalls and kept him going for decades.

"He stayed physically fit by running and swimming. He stayed close to his religious beliefs by attending Mass every day. He laughs and he's able to find humor in each day. I'm not trying to be a preacher as to how one should live their life, but this guy kind of figured it out. He's been able to achieve the kind of elusive happiness which is something many lawyers never achieve in this business."

There are other secrets to his happiness revealed– his survival after many combat missions serving with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, for one.

"God was very good to me, and gave me a second chance in life," Lucianna said. "I remember that every day of my life."

Maybe it's that mindset that drives Lucianna when he drives to jail every Sunday to visit his clients. Maybe it's the occasional dram of Johnnie Walker Black or Blue that he reportedly enjoys that strengthens his constitution. Or maybe it's a simple love of his job, and of life itself, that so satisfies his soul.

"I love coming here, practicing law and being with these beautiful people," said Lucianna, looking around fondly at his work colleagues. "It's a wonderful experience. I'm not bored. I'm not tired. And I'm not ready to stop. There are a lot of people who hate their job. Not me. For me, my job and my family – it's the elixir of life."

E-mail: bonamo@northjersey.com

[Editor]

The Record King
Tuesday November 15, 2011, 2:52 PM
BY JOSEPH RITACCO
SPECIAL SECTIONS
Hackensack Chronicle

For Those Who 'Still like That Old Time Rock 'N' roll'

Trying to track down a favorite vinyl record from years gone by? Chances are good you'll find it at The Record King in Hackensack, tucked somewhere within the store's vast inventory of more than 500,000 selections.

Owner Craig Stepneski, the keeper of the flame, has dedicated his career to preserving the bands and music he loved as a child. He credits his siblings for introducing him to the classic 1960s music that he would later make a career out of selling.

"When I was a kid I played my brother's 1961-62 records, and my sister's 1964-68 records," he recalls. "So I knew all about the 1960s."

His familiarity with the time period helped him land a job sorting records at the Hackensack Record King, where he began working in 1974 at the age of 14.

Little did he know then that such a modest job would turn into a lifelong endeavor. He formed a close relationship with Bill Smith, the store's owner, who he would succeed in that role in 1992. He would later shorten the store's name to The Record King, in case, he joked, he ever had to move the business out of Hackensack.

The business, a staple of Hackensack since 1965, was a "headquarters," Stepneski said, for fans of The Beatles and, later, the disco era.

"Back then," he recalls, "it was all new releases."

The emergence of stores like Walmart, Target and Best Buy, however, forced a shift in the business, which now specializes in the sale of used records, CDs and DVDs, along with other collectibles and autographed items. The store also has a presence on eBay.

The store's customer base, said Stepneski, is a loyal one, with relationships dating back to the 1970s in some instances.

"We have some great conversations," he said. "We'll have the debates about the best bass players. Who's the best in rock? Who's the best in jazz? The customers are very smart and really into the music."

The Record King, located at 303 Main St. in Hackensack, may be reached at 201-488-4232.

It is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the store, visit www.therecordking.com.

[Editor]

Ex-Jacoby Appliance site in Hackenack sold
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
BY  LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER
The Record

*Restaurant, dollar store may move in.

The former Jacoby Appliance Parts store on Main Street in Hackensack has been sold and will likely be converted to a dollar store or restaurant, a real estate broker said Tuesday.

The 5,000-square-foot storefront at 269 Main St. was acquired for $450,000 in cash by Diwan 168 Inc., said Dominic Fittizzi, an associate vice president at NAI James E. Hanson Inc. The real estate firm was retained to sell seven locations owned by Jacoby, which sold parts for appliances such as washing machines and stoves, Fittizzi said.

Jacoby was bought by Marcone Supply, and was looking to liquidate some of its real estate holdings, Fittizzi said. The Jacoby store that had been at 269 Main St. moved to 180 Main St., operating under its new owner's name, Marcone Supply.

Diwan has offices in New York City, and Fittizzi said it plans to put in a dollar store, a restaurant or possibly both "because the building splits pretty well" at the 269 Main St. site.

The building was constructed in 1986 and has a tin ceiling and hardwood floors, Fittizzi said.

So far Fittizzi has sold Jacoby's Hackensack retail store and its warehouse on State Street, as well as the company's locations in Trenton, Pennsauken and New Brunswick. He said he has two sites left to sell, one in Delaware and one in Albany, N.Y.

Email: moss@northjersey.com

[just watching]

1986 ?  That building was not constructed in 1986.  I would guess 1930's or 1940's, but some older readers might have better information.

[Editor]

Hackensack's Main Street Business Alliance, a SID corporation, introduced 2013 budget
Friday, February 22, 2013
BY  JENNIFER VAZQUEZ
NEWS EDITOR
Hackensack Chronicle

Main Street Business Alliance, a Special Improvement District established in 2004, submitted its proposed 2013 budget to the city council.


DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Main Street Business Alliance, commonly referred to as the Upper Main Alliance, submitted the introduction of its proposed 2013 budget to the city council —seeking the same amount as previous years, $360,595. A public hearing will be held on March 5, during the council meeting, on the UMA budget. The corporation, which formed as a partnership between the business community and the City of Hackensack, addresses the business community with the goal of improving the local economy. It's boundaries are Main Street from Clinton Place to Atlantic Street.

The total requested "Special Assessment" amount of the budget is $360,595 — the same figure requested the previous year, according to the report submitted by MSBA, which is commonly referred to as the Upper Main Alliance.

"The Upper Main Alliance has been doing a great job of working, while staying within their budget," City Manager and UMA Non-Voting Trustee Stephen Lo Iacono said. "For the past, I want to say about four years, their budget has remained the same."

According to MSBA Executive Director Albert Dib, the appropriation of the budget is determined by the tax assessor and is aimed at the business owners who form part of the MSBA designated district. This special assessment is collected from the property owners in the defined boundaries that make up MSBA.

"This amount is our primary, our sole source for functioning," Dib said. "We have been requesting this amount for the past four years, which is when I came on board [as executive director] and, I believe, it goes to two years before that."

MSBA's budget is divided into three main categories: visual improvement, administration, and marketing and public relations.

The 2013 appropriation for visual improvement totals an estimated $150,560, whereas the SID budget for the same is $273,500.

According to Dib the total SID budget amount for all categories is comprised of the 2013 appropriation amount and the 2012 surplus for that particular categorical item.

The budget and report state that within the total SID amount for visual improvement, $90,000 will go toward this component for the "continued planning and consultation in connection with our "strategic vision" and downtown rehabilitation goals.

"There are many things included under this category," Dib said. "Among them grant programs and streetscape improvements."

According to Dib, this category includes a number of grant programs aimed at current business owners within the Upper Main Alliance district.

"If they meet certain criteria, they are encouraged to apply for these grants," he said. "These grants, among other improvements and programs fall under this category."

The 2013 appropriation for administration is $91,503.27. The budget for this category is set at $132,490.

The SID budget's marketing and public relations category is set at, approximately, $189,222. However, the appropriation amount is about $135,407.

This category entails the maintenance of the corporation's website, newsletter publications and the Co-Op Advertising Program, among other things.

"There are many important components in this category," Dib said. "One that must be pointed out is the Co-Op Advertising Program. This program allows for businesses [within the UMA district] to advertise their businesses within our ad shell….basically they can place their own advertisement as they choose as long as it is within our designated shell."

The ad shell is a designated design that illustrates UMA's logo. If a business chooses to take advantage of this program, UMA will utilize their funds to assist in paying for a percentage of the advertising cost.

The total expenditure listed for the 2013 budget is $631,116, whereas the appropriation amount is $360,595.

"Yes this is tax money collected from businesses in our designated area," Dib said. "But this money is being fed right back to the businesses and their needs….we want to encourage people to participate in Upper Main by taking advantage of all we offer."

Though Lo Iacono is not involved in decisions pertaining to UMA, his role as non-voting trustee enables him to sit at UMA meetings, allowing for him to gather information as to what the alliance is doing, share plans that the city has and brainstorm as to how both entities can work together. Collaboration between the two is important, Lo Iacono said.

"They have been a tremendous force and have been involved with the [Main Street Rehabilitation Plan]," he said. "They do tremendous work with the resources they have and continue to play an important role in moving this city forward."

According to MSBA's website, the corporation "is a public private partnership formed as an alliance between the business community and the City of Hackensack. The mission of the MSBA is to address the issues facing the business community with the goal of improving the local economy and the overall business climate in Hackensack."

The public hearing on the budget is March 5.

Email: vazquez@northjersey.com

[Editor]

Who knew?
_______________________
At antique Hackensack clock tower, springing ahead looks like going back in time
Saturday March 9, 2013, 12:00 AM
BY  JIM BECKERMAN
STAFF WRITER
The Record

The times they are a-changin.’ And doesn’t Ivan Lengyel know it.


CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Ivan Lengyel resetting the clock tower at Johnson Free Public Library in Hackensack for daylight saving time. Many of the big clocks have been automated, but a few still need to be set manually.

It’s Friday — roughly 2:21 p.m., but by whose watch? — with the daylight saving changeover 36 hours in the future. And Lengyel, one of the area’s last bona fide tower clock specialists, is busy adjusting one of the area’s last public clocks that needs to be reset by hand.

“BONG!” sounds the chime of the great tower clock at Johnson Free Public Library in Hackensack. It’s somewhat off its normal schedule, and no wonder. In a tiny room on the other side of the huge clock face — reached by an elevator and an improbably steep staircase — Lengyel is at the mechanism. “One of the hammers is busted,” he said. “We’ll have to come back to that.”

Now he’s adjusting the time, twisting the drive shaft from the main mechanism so that it matches up with the little numbers on a reference timing gear. Outside, the hands on the clock face are turning, too. He checks his watch. Correct? “It had better be,” he said.

In fact, the time will be one hour off for the next day and a half — until daylight saving time returns at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Nor is this unusual. Other towns, faced with the problem of a weekend clock-adjustment by Monday-through-Friday employees, have equally creative schemes. Paterson will be changing the big City Hall clock on Monday. Ridgewood, too, will be resetting its big clock on Ridgewood Avenue, near Van Neste Square, after the fact. “If we do it on Friday, then it’s wrong for two days,” said Jim O’Connell, supervisor of the village’s parking traffic and signaling division. “If we do it Monday, it’s only wrong for a day.”

The Johnson Library clock, 36 inaccurate hours and all, is a beauty: raised iron Roman numerals, set in a crenellated stone tower topped by a weathered copper-green cupola. But the interior mechanism, seldom seen by outsiders, is gorgeous, too: gears, ratchets, chains, shafts, set in a chassis about the size of a cooking stove. “E. Howard & Company, Boston, Mass.,” reads the plate. “It’s cast iron, very brittle,” Lengyel said. “You have to be careful with this stuff.”

Public clocks like this were once a source of civic pride. Banks, jewelry stores and railroad stations erected them to dramatize their own reliability. Businessmen set their watches to them. People met “under the clock.” And if a movie comedian wanted to turn convention on its ear, what could be more subversive than to dangle from a big public clock, as Harold Lloyd did in “Safety Last!” in 1923?

Today, when everyone gets satellite-accurate time through dozens of personal gadgets, the public clock doesn’t matter as much. The big clocks themselves — the ones that are still left — have mostly been electrified, automated.

When Lengyel, 69, a Hungarian native and former Edgewater resident (he now lives in Sussex County), first began servicing local clocks around 1979, there were maybe 50 or 60 clocks he had to change twice a year, when daylight saving time came and went. Now, of the more than 1,000 clocks he services year-round, only the clock in the 112-year-old Johnson Library tower has to be reset manually. It, too, has been electrified — but without an automatic reset to keep it accurate.

That’s just fine with Lengyel — who’ll take the swing of a pendulum over the dull silence of an electric motor any time. “You ever stand in front of a grandfather clock?” he said. “You have the tick on the one side and the tock on the other. To me, that’s music.”

An electronics technician by trade (he also services intercoms, PA systems and nurse call systems), he’s had a special fondness for clocks ever since he found one in a junkyard at around age 13, fixed it up and brought it to his home in Edgewater.

“It was a mantel clock with a chime in it,” he recalled. “It got to the point where I had to shut it off. My mother couldn’t stand it.”

Lengyel, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of the bings and bongs — and still can’t.

On Friday, he was already looking forward to his next job: a return visit to the Johnson Library tower, to fix that busted hammer he noticed earlier. It sounds one of the bells on the clock tower’s four-note “Westminster chimes.” He nodded to a ladder, leading up to a trap door in the ceiling.

“That goes up to the bell tower,” he said. “That’s where I have to go next time.”

Staff Writer Virginia Rohan contributed to this article.

Email: beckerman@northjersey.com

[BLeafe]

There was an additional picture in the newspaper. Here are bigger versions of each:

(click to enlarge)

[Editor]

Sidney Wiener, 87; started sleep stores
Thursday, April 18, 2013    Last updated: Thursday April 18, 2013, 11:32 AM
BY  JAY LEVIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record


WIENER

Sidney Wiener, who launched the North Jersey sleep stores with the catchy Bruce the Bed King name, died Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 87.

Mr. Wiener and his brother, Bertram, learned the ways of retail at their parents' juvenile furniture store on Main Street in Hackensack. In 1954, the brothers tried something different. They took a retail space at 467 Main St. in Hackensack, across from Sears, and began selling mattresses. They called the store Colony Sleep Center.

"The way my father told it, he looked around and the only places at the time where you could get a mattress were furniture stores and department stores," said Mr. Wiener's son, Bruce.

Marvin Jeshiva, regional sales manager for Gold Bond Mattress Co., a bedding manufacturer in Hartford, Conn., said the Wiener brothers were ahead of their time in opening a store selling strictly mattresses.

"If they had the desire, I'm sure they could have out-Sleepy'ed Sleepy's," Jeshiva said, referring to the giant Sleepy's chain, whose first mattress store opened in 1957.

Colony Sleep Centers eventually grew to 12 New Jersey stores, and in the late '70s the Wieners rebranded the stores as Bruce the Bed King, complete with a caricature of the mustached Bruce Wiener, who joined the company in 1974.

Today the family has two Bruce the Bed King stores: the original Hackensack location and on Route 17 in Paramus. Sidney Wiener retired about 25 years ago.

"My father was the most generous, kindest man," Bruce Wiener said. "He and my uncle pretty much gave me and my cousin [Robert Wiener] the business. They always supported us, in everything we wanted to do."

Mr. Wiener's hobby had nothing to do with sleeping. He became smitten with Western illustration after a visit to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City and started collecting original illustrations by eminent Western artists.

Six years ago, Mr. Wiener and his wife, Rosalyn, gave their collection — 91 artworks and 968 publications – to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis.

Mr. Wiener, formerly of Hackensack, is survived by his wife of 48 years; his children, Bruce Wiener and Sue-Ellyn Wiener Behl; his brother, Bertram; his wife's daughters, Terry Brous, Sherry Oliver and Nancy Oliver, and eight grandchildren.

Graveside services are today at 1 pm at Beth El Cemetery, Washington Township.

Email: levin@northjersey.com

[Editor]

Then and Now: Woolworth 5-and-dimes
Sunday, May 12, 2013    Last updated: Sunday May 12, 2013, 9:45 AM
By BILL ERVOLINO
COLUMNIST
 
The Woolworth on South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield in 1997, the year the chain shut down. A business brief in the Feb. 28, 1990, issue of The Record trumpeted the good news: "National Wal-Mart, Woolworth have a big quarter."

The story went on to note: "Woolworth ... posted revenues of $2.80 billion for the quarter, up 9.8 percent from $2.55 billion in the year-earlier period."

Apparently, though, the bucks stopped there. Or thereabouts.

Seven years later, a front-page story titled "End of an era" interviewed crestfallen customers at the soon-to-be-shut Woolworth stores in Bergenfield, Paterson, Hackensack and Rutherford.

As the story — dated Friday, July 18, 1997 — noted, "On Thursday, Woolworth Corp. announced the closing of all 400 Woolworth stores in the nation during the next few months. That includes seven stores in North Jersey and the 27 stores in the rest of the state. The problem, officials suggest, is that too many people now view the old 5-and-10-cent stores more as a slice of Americana than as a good place to shop."

So, what happened?

Increased competition from Walmart and other discount chains was seen as part of the problem. Another was that Woolworth hadn't changed enough with the times and was losing its target audience to, ironically enough, Target.

Roger N. Farah, a Tenafly resident and the corporation's chief executive, told The Record, "This company has invested significant resources in trying to revitalize the F.W. Woolworth chain. However, despite our best efforts ... the business continued to lose money."

The first and most successful of the so-called five-and-dimes, F.W. Woolworth Co. opened its first store in Utica, N.Y., in 1878. That store failed. But one year later the brothers Frank and Charles Woolworth opened a second store, in Lancaster, Pa., and almost immediately an empire was born.

The stores were known for their low prices, their open merchandise displays, which allowed customers to handle items without the aid of a clerk, and their beloved lunch counters, which became part of civil rights history in 1960 at the then-segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. (When four black students were refused service there, a series of sit-ins and boycotts began across the country — and continued for six months. Part of that counter has since been installed in the Smithsonian Institution.)

In 1979, Woolworth was cited by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest department store chain in the world. The chain continued to expand, but competition mounted. In addition to the newer discount chains, craft stores and other specialty outlets, the company found itself up against supermarkets, which had begun selling gadgets, small appliances and home items.

In 1997, news of the pending store closings had many North Jersey residents waxing nostalgic. Today, mention of Woolworth still brings back a rush of memories.

Lore Wellhoefer Valcarcel of River Edge recalled working at the Hackensack store in the early 1970s. "That was my first job, when I was 16," she said, "and I started in the record department, then the cosmetic 'island' — an oval-shaped counter with the employee in the middle. The cash registers were so old you needed to push down separate levers for each denomination of money. We wore aqua-colored smocks. I ended my Woolworth's career the following year, working the main checkout, which was chaotic on a Saturday afternoon. This was about 1971, when you had to fight the crowds to walk down Main Street in Hackensack. From there, I went on to bigger and better things: Newberry's in the Bergen Mall!"

Eileen Cammarano of Teaneck worked for the Union City store in the 1950s. "I was in charge of the toy counter," she recalled, "so every holiday was special with seasonal items. Our lunch counter special was chow mein sandwiches on a hamburger bun topped with Chinese noodles and a splash of soy sauce! Coffee back then was 10 cents a cup. Great memories!"

Hackensack High School alumnus Don Pierce regularly went to the Hackensack Woolworth "for frozen Coke and the latest 45s" when he was a student, while Debbie Snow of Ringwood trekked to the Bergenfield store for "Coke floats and cheap earrings."

For George Grimm, who grew up in Jersey City, the Woolworth on Central Avenue was a regular destination.

"What I remember most about [the stores] was that all the merchandise displays were flat," he said. "No shelves, nothing hanging. Everything was on those flat tables with the sliding doors underneath. I also used to buy my Hardy Boys books there!"

Lisa Taglieri Osborne, who grew up in Oakland, recalled going to the Pompton Lakes store "every Saturday while my mother had her hair done. They had balloons over the lunch counter. You could pop them and win a banana split for anywhere from a penny to 99 cents."

And yes, there were 5- and 10-cent ones, too.

Email: ervolino@northjersey.com